It is common to see bullying occurring in the high school age group. Many teens often believe they can escape bullying due to the lack of or unclear consequences. Thanks to advances in technology, children now have another source of bullying: social media. Children can no longer escape the harassment that follows them everywhere they go. These problems should not be ignored. Millions of children are affected each year. Thousands of children's lives are at stake. Society has slowly started to realize this and has already started taking action. Steps have been taken in schools and even within government to prevent, assist, or completely stop heinous acts of bullying. To address the theme of school bullying, this essay analyzes the main causes, effects and solutions to this problem. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay Although it is not allowed, encouraged, or excused, there are reasons why people choose to play a role in bullying. You don't just decide to hurt someone else unless they have underlying issues themselves. There is no acceptable reason to bully another human being. So, when a bully performs actions that have a negative impact on another person, the majority of the time, they are doing it “to escape their own problems.” It's the one thing all bullies have in common. They destroy others because of something wrong in their own mind. Many bullies have been bullied before or experienced some kind of hatred that made them feel less human. In order to balance this out, in their minds, the only way is to tear someone else down with them. This gives them confidence that they are not the only ones who don't fit in or don't like others. They build confidence because they believe that if someone is below them in society, there is no need to view them as the worst, weirdest, or stupidest. In addition to the fact that they are personally going through difficulties, there is also the probable reason. for them, noticing someone is different and as society has taught us, you push away those who aren't like us. According to PACERS.org, many victims of bullying report that they are bullied because of their skin color, ethnicity, gender, religion or sexual orientation. All the things they can't control but also all the things that make them who they are. Instances of bullying tend to occur against a minority or against someone who was previously considered less human in society. This too, however, also stems from the bullies' personal issues and their mental battles. They bully to protect themselves. They see something as a threat so they tear it down, they see something different and change for many is scary so instead of learning their ignorance takes over and they tear it down. Overall, the action of harassment is deeply rooted in individuals who do not know what they should know. Additionally, teens are more likely to participate in bullying because either no one tells them it's wrong or because they don't face all the consequences. For example, cyberbullying has become a major source of bullying because students do not face their victim and therefore do not see the effects of what they are doing. They are also morewilling to bully on social media because there’s no stopping them. The effects of bullying can be catastrophic. Being hurt or being told you're not enough or experiencing things you don't allow are all things that can tear someone apart, especially a teenager. As a teenager you're learning to be yourself, you're still figuring out who you want to be, so being treated like it's not enough or just being right can take a toll on you emotionally. Being a victim of such a reckless and discouraging act can cause a child's mental health to decline. HelpGuide.org explains it as a feeling of hopelessness and shame as well as fear and loneliness. These feelings confuse teens and can build up and lead to even more serious emotions and actions. Many child victims tend to develop depression, which usually leads to a decline in their physical health. Children with deep depression may begin to engage in other unhealthy actions such as eating too much or too little, using drugs and alcohol, self-harm, skipping school to escape the source of all their pain . Victims often become suicidal. “Bullying victims are between 2 and 9 times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims, according to Yale University studies” (bullyingstatistics.org). This statistic is more than just numbers. This is children's lives. People who have not yet lived. The fact is that suicide is the third leading cause of adolescence and the majority of these deaths involved children who were victims of bullying. These numbers are slowly and slightly influenced by the solutions to bullying that have been introduced into school systems. This ongoing problem has forced school systems and the government to implement solutions to reduce the severity of student health. A variety of solutions have been introduced into education and to school staff, students and parents. There has been a recurrence of failed attempts which have little effect on the extent of the harassment. The idea is simply to educate parents and adults on how to deal with bullies or victims of bullying. It was considered unproductive and unnecessary to simply say that parents and teachers should pay more attention to it. A parent may be the most observant parent and not notice the signs that their children are being bullied or that their children are bullies. There must be further resolutions to fully address the issue. One of the most common solutions introduced in almost every high school is an anti-bullying program or policy. An anti-bullying program is about making information clear and accessible. These programs typically feature posters, fact sheets, parent resources, and provide helpful resources such as the crisis hotline. Anti-bullying policies are simply rules in place that tell students how they are expected to behave, inform them of what constitutes unacceptable behavior, and provide possible consequences for certain behaviors. While this is all a step in the right direction, the impact is unfortunately little known. “Bullying at school: state of knowledge and effective interventions” is a review that explores the effectiveness of certain solutions against bullying at school. The article explains that these anti-bullying programs and laws have little or no influence on children and, in most cases, are not properly disseminated to the student body. " Theymay decide not to implement the program as it was designed to be implemented. » (Theadvocate.org) So even though these policies, rules and programs are in place, teachers tend not to convey the information correctly. This could be due to several possible reasons, such as teachers not having the qualifications or little training on the subject or some teachers not making it a priority as it should be. This results in no effect and no assistance for victims who desperately need it. The effects have been studied by researchers; Evans, Fraser and Cotter. They recorded minor effects in schools that had an anti-bullying program and policies, and their records showed that of all the studies conducted at multiple high schools, about 45 percent of them had little known effect on bullying in schools and they also found that 30% of programs had absolutely no effect on victims of bullying. Many variables could have led to these findings, but regardless, nearly half of schools that participate in anti-bullying programs do not actually achieve positive effects, meaning that a majority of Among them, students continue to participate in negative and hurtful acts or continue to be targets of bullies. In conclusion, the programs in place are ineffective and more research is needed to find ways to solve this problem. It is determined that parents cannot be expected to become more involved and that schools cannot continue to neglect programs and policies. So the questions are: what more can be done, what is missing in the programs, how can we change the environment of a school to make it safe enough for all children? The second solution was proposed by the United States government. Enforcement of harassment handles on social media platforms. One of the most common forms of harassment is cyberbullying. The children, mostly of school age, have found ways to attack and harass their victims even when they are not with them. Insults, the spread of rumors, the distribution of photos are all forms of intimidation present online. It's not reasonable to ask every parent of a teenager to monitor exactly what's happening online and on their phones, but it makes sense to impose rules on social media users. Attack the problem of harassment at the source. U.S. House Papers lay out the five-point action plan that U.S. Congressman Josh Gottheimer put in place to "improve data and incident reporting" (House Papers representatives of the United States). This action step requires social media companies such as Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook to add a feature that blocks any negative, bullying, or harassing messages/posts. 15% of school-age children report being bullied via social media. Although there are no hard statistics on the situation, bullying has been brought under control as children no longer have access to it or the ability to post negative things without being reported and removed. The five-point plan also punishes those who choose to participate in the act of bullying. The final solution that has proven to be ineffective is to incorporate healthy activities for the student body. This experience was observed and recorded in the Health Research Journal, “Evaluating Healthy Schools: Perceptions of Impact Among School Based Respondents, 7(1), 27-56.